The Workforce Development Authority (WDA) has launched a fresh campaign that seeks to increase the number of girls joining Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme.

The drive was launched yesterday in collaboration with the Dutch agency for international cooperation in higher education (EP-NUFFIC).The move is also part of broader efforts to encourage girls to join science, technology and mathematics (STEM) related trades.

The campaign will run through December 13 under the theme "Girls are capable of technical and vocational professions”.

The entire campaign will take the form of a 12-day road trip which will involve a team of female role models working in TVET, who have been coached in collaboration with Gender Focal Points (GFP) associated with Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRCs).

These role models will engage with girls, parents and other concerned Rwandans sensitising them about the importance of enrolling girls in TVET.

They will make stopovers in the districts of Muhanga, Huye, Nyamagabe , Musanze , Gicumbi, Rubavu, Karongi, Rusizi, Rwamagana, Ngoma, Nyagatare and Kicukiro.

The campaign has been designed into a fun, interactive and informative approach for the targetb groups, including young girls in lower secondary, their parents and teachers. This will be done with the objective of raising awareness about few girls in TVET institutions, focusing particularly on inherit perceptions and biases from students, parents, teachers and the community at large.

The campaign was funded by EP-NUFFIC and is being implemented by a multidisciplinary consultancy firm MOTT MACDONALD, in partnership with WDA.

Organisers hope that this will bring Rwanda closer to her goal of tripling girls’ enrollment in TVET by 2020. It also serves to create public support base for girls and women studying and working in STEM related occupations.

Speaking at the official launch of the campaign, yesterday, Jerome Gasana, the Director General of WDA, said the drive will be of great importance to the national efforts to uplift women, especially in the economic and leadership realms.

For him, the campaign has come to solve the common challenge of girls shunning specific courses like engineering and construction.

"Our history and culture has always discouraged girls from joining work that requires physical energy. In this campaign, we want to show schoolgirls, parents and other Rwandans that it is possible for girls to take on these courses. We want to go to every province visiting schools, meeting schoolgirls and sensitising them about this because supporting women in TVET is a key part of our mission,” he said.

WDA currently oversees 392 officially accredited TVET schools (both public and private) countrywide, with a total student population 97,633 out of which 45,738 are female.

Only about 18 per cent of female students enroll in Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) related trades.

Gasana, however, recognised the ability of girls in STEM courses, citing an example of IPRCs where girls who take on such courses excel over their male counterparts.

Josephine Kairaba Mudenge, a female architect, one of the role models referred to the drive as a "worthwhile campaign” through which young girls will be encouraged and guided continuously.

"The percentage of women in Rwanda is high and we cannot underestimate them,” she said.

She tipped the girls on being determined, confident and committed in order to achieve their dreams.

The drive will be concluded with an award ceremony for best role models studying and working in STEM related occupations on December13

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